ARLINGTON, Texas – Big performances from sophomores Misty Dossey and Katie Ferrell punctuated a dominant 84-53 season-opening win for the UT Arlington women's basketball team over Chicago State on Saturday.
 
Dossey finished with a career-high 24 points on an efficient 10-of-11 shooting from the field. She also fell just a rebound (9) shy of a double-double and added 3 blocks and a pair of assists.
 
"I think our biggest bright spot from the offseason has been the improvement of our post players with Misty and Emma [Halverson]," said head coach Krista Gerlich. "I think today you saw that. I think Misty and Emma are starting to figure out how to get position, how to use their length. How to use just the high-low game that we play."
 
Halverson finished the game with 15 points on 7-of-10 shooting. She also had four rebounds and four assists. Ferrell also stuffed the stat sheet, as she finished with 6 points, 10 rebounds and 9 assists. Terryn Milton pitched in with 10 points, 6 dimes and 3 boards. Camryn Hawkins and Bre Wickware, who was making her UTA debut, chipped in with 8 points and 4 rebounds each.

UTA outrebounded Chicago State (0-2) 50-26 in the win and won the battle in the paint 54-16. The Lady Mavericks also edged out Chicago State in bench points 46-8. Gerlich said she was happy with the Lady Mavs' (1-0) improvement on the boards from the preseason.

"As a coach, you're never satisfied and so I think there's still a lot of things that we can really improve on," she said. "I thought that our rebounding was much better than it was in the exhibition game and our first scrimmage. They've done a good job of really focusing on that and putting a body on somebody and controlling the glass."

Through four quarters, UTA got to the free-throw line 11 more times than the Cougars and finished the game shooting 18-of-24 from the charity stripe.
 
UP NEXT
UTA will hit the road for three straight games (at North Texas, at Grambling, at Kansas State) and three neutral site games (vs. Louisville, vs. Oregon, vs. Oklahoma State) in the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam (Nov. 28-30).
 
FOLLOW THE LADY MAVS
For the latest news on UTA Women's Basketball, log on to UTAMavs.com or stay connected to the Lady Mavs on social media. Follow the Lady Mavericks on Twitter @UTAMavsWBB, on Instagram @UTAMavsWBB and on Facebook at Facebook.com/UTAMavsWBB.